In the past few months, thanks to the improvement in yield rate, Samsung's wafer foundry business seems to be gradually getting out of trouble and has an upward trend. Samsung has also set new goals for its foundry business, hoping to reverse the unfavorable situation, achieve profitability within two years, and occupy 20% of the market share. It is reported that the overall capacity utilization rate of Samsung's wafer fab in the second half of 2025 is 50%, and has now gradually increased to 60%, but there is still a certain gap between the 80% target of break-even.
According to Wccftech, Samsung's wafer foundry business may usher in a turning point in 2026. The latest report shows that the yield rate of its 2nm process has stabilized. With the increase in overall customer orders, it is expected to achieve profitability next year. Given that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is approaching capacity limits, many customers are looking to Samsung as a viable alternative.
The one that everyone is paying the most attention to is Qualcomm. Its CEO Cristiano Amon said at CES 2026 that he has begun discussing the latest 2nm process manufacturing contract with Samsung and confirmed that Qualcomm has completed the chip design work and aims to achieve commercialization as soon as possible. If it can successfully win Qualcomm's order, it will be another major victory for Samsung, and the two parties will cooperate again after five years. Industry insiders previously revealed that Samsung plans to allocate about 10% of the production capacity of its Hwaseong S3 fab to Qualcomm. It is not yet clear whether the 2nm process will be used to manufacture the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition or the next-generation Snapdragon chip.
The poor performance of the 3nm GAA process has caused huge economic losses to Samsung. The long-term low yield rate means that it cannot gain the trust of customers. For this reason, they have turned to the more reliable TSMC to place orders. It is rumored that Samsung’s wafer foundry business will lose 7 trillion won (approximately US$4.834 billion/RMB 33.67 billion) in 2025. In addition to the 2nm process, Samsung's improvements to the 4nm and 8nm processes have also been recognized by customers, and the improvement in yield has also led to higher profits.